Optimize Options

In an economy, Pareto Optimal state when no further changes in the economy can make one person better off without at the same time making another worse off. Named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto , the idea simply refers ...

How should you compare these three designs?

The third option is obviously worse than the first two - it's slow and dangerous. But between the other two is a question of values. Maybe a race car driver would prefer faster at the cost of some safety. Maybe the soccer mom wants safe...

Let's say you plot all your schedules and leisures in a graph, it shows all your productive possibilities, time allotment, and situations of good work and sudden work.

Now, is your situation is Pareto efficient?

If we’re below the frontier, improvements is needed. We...

Efficient frontiers reveal a general pattern. When you’re below the frontier, you can always improve simply by optimizing your choice. You can make a better choice by just pick an option that has more of what you want.

When you’re on the frontier, however, the only way to m...

In engineering, new inventions promise faster and safer cars than what exist today. The frontier can shift.

In your work, there’s always the possibility of radical changes that might break the current frontier. Maybe you find a technique that lets you get much more...

What if there are more designs than the presented three? Such possibilities exist in some situations, surely with habits and situations. Here, putting them all on a graph, we can see that any of the ones on the inside of the frontier are bad choices.

Why?

Because there’s alwa...